Bengaluru, Karnataka, 20th of May 2026 : Coke Studio Bharat returns with its third release of Season 4, travelling this time to the lanes of Benaras for Kachaudi Gali, a folk song inspired by the forgotten human cost of the First Anglo-Burmese War.
The song opens in Kachaudi Gali, where a woman watches her husband get marched away by the British Army, pulled from Mirzapur and shipped to Rangoon (Yangon, Myanmar), for a war he never chose. Her voice carries grief, fury, and the weight of a home suddenly emptied, intimate, local, and rooted in place in the way only folk music can be. What she feels is what thousands of ordinary families once felt: a loss that never made it into history books, but lived quietly for years in the narrow lanes of cities like Benaras.
Bringing this story to audiences are three distinct voices. Rekha Bhardwaj, whose voice has long carried the weight of longing and defiance in equal measure, anchors the track with an emotional authority that feels entirely earned. Utpal Udit brings a grounded folk sensibility to the production, holding the song’s texture without softening its edges. Khwaab weaves through the track as a thread of quiet tension, letting the grief breathe without ever letting it collapse.
Shantanu Gangane, IMX (Integrated Marketing Experience) Lead, Coca-Cola India and Southwest Asia, said“One of the most exciting things about folk music is that it carries memory in a very natural way. Bhojpuri has a rich tradition of storytelling that, over time, has slowly faded from the mainstream. With Coke Studio Bharat, the endeavour has been to bring these lost stories and cultures back into the conversation. Kachaudi Gali is a powerful example of that approach: a truly local story interpreted through the distinct voices and creative instincts of Rekha Bhardwaj, Utpal Udit, and Khwaab, in a way that feels both timeless and contemporary.”
Rekha Bhardwaj said, “Kachaudi Gali sits in a very specific emotional space. It’s not about the war, it’s about what the war takes from you. We tried to hold on to that intimacy and let the emotion come through honestly. What I loved about doing this with Coke Studio Bharat was that even with the scale, the song still feels deeply personal.”
Utpal Udit said, “The interesting part was building the world of the song through sound. A lot of the production came from small details: the pauses, the restraint, the roughness in certain places. For me, it was important that the song stayed honest to Bhojpuri folk and became a way to bring back its language and culture. Coke Studio Bharat understood that instinct, and that is what made the track come together the way it did.”
Khwaab said, “What Coke Studio Bharat does is take something deeply local, a lane, a dialect, a war no one talks about anymore, and give it the kind of production and platform that lets the world hear it. Kachaudi Gali taught me that the smallest details hold the most feeling, and this was the right place to bring that out.”
With Kachaudi Gali, Coke Studio Bharat Season 4 continues to explore stories that have lived on through folk memory, regional music, and oral tradition for generations. Following Ae Ajnabee and Bulleya Ve, the season continues to reinterpret local narratives through contemporary artists, sounds, and collaborations for audiences today.
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